The Drug Enforcement Administration is now calling for even more THC production, psilocybin production and DMT production for research purposes compared to what it originally proposed for 2024. It has raised its quotas on these drugs while Maintaining the high production goals for marijuana and other psychedelics .
The DEA announced that it would publish a notice in the Federal Register tomorrow, stating it had received comments from manufacturers requesting an increase in the previously proposed quotas of 2024 for Schedule I substances to “meet the medical and scientific requirements,” and agreed to make the change in its new final order.
Accordingly, the agency nearly doubled the quotas for delta-9 THC and all other tetrahydrocannabinol, increasing them to 1,523,040 grams and 1,166,130 grams, respectively.
The DEA also wants 20,000 grams of psilocybin, up from the initial proposal of 15,000 grams. It is also asking for 11,000 grams DMT.
The production goals were maintained as originally proposed in November. They are: 6,675,000 g of marijuana, 1,000,00 g of marijuana extracts, 24,000 gram of psilocyn and 150 grammes of ibogaine.
The quotas are largely in line with the DEA’s production levels for 2023, although the agency has been approving higher amounts each year as the interest in cannabis and psychedelics is continuing to grow.
This is especially true for psychedelics, which have been decriminalized in recent years as a result of historic reforms at the local, state, and federal levels to promote scientific research, therapeutic access, and decriminalize entheogenic fungi and plants.
DEA’s 2020 quota of psilocybin is 30 grams compared to 20,000 in the latest proposal.
In an earlier November notice, the agency stated that there had been a “significant increase” in the use and research of hallucinogenic controlled substance schedule I. The DEA received and approved new registration requests from schedule I researchers, as well as new registration requests for manufacturers, to grow, synthesize and extract specific schedule I hallucinogenic drugs for research and clinical trials.
The new document also responds to comments requesting an increase in psychedelic production quotas to “religious uses” and expressing frustration at the agency for having “disregarded [their] legal religious use (of psychedelics) as a factor in setting the production quotas.”
The commenters requested a meeting with the DEA Administrator to discuss this issue. However, the agency didn’t directly respond to that request.
It pointed out instead that DEA had previously “held discussions and welcomed further engagement and feedback with indigenous communities” and that “production quotas [are] determined in part by individual manufacturing quotas submitted by DEA registered manufacturers of these substances.”
One set of comments suggested that the agency include “fruiting bodies containing both psilocybin (and psilocin) and psilocin, and peyote button containing mescaline” as part of its production quotas.
DEA replied that because the Controlled Substances Act has specific control of psilocybin, psilocyn and not the mushrooms containing these compounds, they will continue to set quotas based upon those constituents both naturally and synthetically derived. Peyote and mescaline are also listed separately, according to the agency. The quota doesn’t include the production of cacti.
In 2022, DEA ended a long-standing monopoly in marijuana production for domestic research, which could presumably be used to meet higher production quotas. The agency also discussed its efforts to streamline cannabis access to scientists after the passage of a cannabis-research bill.
The finalized 2024 quotas are part of a continuing administrative review of the scheduling status of marijuana that DEA is currently carrying out after receiving a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recommendation to shift marijuana from Schedule I into Schedule III under CSA.
The FDA is also considering a request to approve the use of MDMA in prescription medications for post-traumatic disorder (PTSD), based on clinical trials that demonstrate its therapeutic efficacy.
DEA’s Schedule I drug production quotas are cited as proof that it supports rigorous research on the substances. However, advocates and scientists have criticized its actions as being antithetical to promoting study.
DEA, for example, recently announced it was taking another shot at after abandoning its initial scheduling proposal in 2020. This sparked a new battle with researchers and advocates, who claim the compounds have therapeutic potential.
Separately, the agency has backed away from a proposal that would have banned five different tryptamine-psychedelics by 2022 due to a large pushback from research and advocacy communities .
A federal appellate panel denied a request by attorneys for a Washington State physician who wanted to reschedule psilocybin in the CSA. A three-judge panel of U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, rejected the doctor’s motion for a rehearing of a previous court decision which returned the matter back to DEA.
DEA is separately warning Georgia pharmacies about dispensing THC as it is illegal. This is because THC remains a Schedule I substance after Georgia became the first state in the U.S. that allowed pharmacies to offer medical marijuana. Nearly 120 facilities applied to sell cannabis oil.
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The post DEA Requests More THC, DMT And Psilocybin To Be Produced In 2024 first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
